We hope you get to enjoy the weekend’s sunny, mild weather, which should be a nice backdrop for the beginning of Passover tonight and Easter on Sunday.
Before the outdoor activities begin and the Easter baskets are filled, let’s take a look back at ARLnow’s biggest stories over the past week.
Last week, County Manager Mark Schwartz put out a new “Six-Step Public Engagement Guide for Capital Projects.” The county press release called it a “major milestone.”
County staff will find no objection to a more clearly defined path to consider large scale infrastructure projects. And the process will certainly provide a good path for projects that everyone will generally agree on the need for, but maybe need just need a little tweaking that comes from public input.
By Laura Saul Edwards
Arlingtonians used to say that rising enrollment in our public schools was “a good problem to have.”
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A helpful new Future Facilities Needs Report (“Future Facilities report”) from the APS Advisory Council on School Facilities and Capital Programs (“FAC”) makes a compelling case for new approaches to school facilities planning.
This new report was first presented to the School Board at its March 22 meeting.
Before all the rest of the snow melts — as did most of this formerly plump snowman — let’s take a look back at ARLnow’s biggest stories over the past week.
For posterity, here is a photo taken during the snowstorm from one of the foremost photographic chroniclers of life in Arlington.
The Washington Post, referred to by one commenter as the “Amazon Post,” failed to get any answers about the offer made to attract the new Amazon HQ to Arlington. The County denied the FOIA request and said the requested information was not subject to disclosure.
With the latest back and forth, there are two questions that come to mind for me:
By Anne O’Brien
Child care in Arlington costs more than college–and not all families are lucky enough to find a spot.
APS began its one-to-one student device program five years ago. Since then, substantial new research has been released documenting the harmful effects of prolonged exposure to such devices, particularly in early childhood.
Device exposure is especially harmful in early childhood
Before you get set for a surely entertaining St. Patrick’s Day weekend, let’s take a look back at the biggest stories on ARLnow over the past week.
Feel free to discuss these topics, your weekend plans or anything else that’s happening locally in the comments below. Have a great rest of your weekend!
In some offices around this time of year, employee productivity mysteriously goes down.
The mid-March affliction seems to affect those who are taking extra time off from their normal day-to-day to gather around the office TV, stare at their smartphone, take extra long lunch breaks or weep while staring at a pyramidic sheet of paper.
The Virginia General Assembly has passed legislation to allow local school districts a little more time to let elementary kids go out and play. Count me as someone all for it with one big caveat. If it means more of the schoolwork is going to be coming home to be done in the evenings, then please don’t do it.
I have written about ending the practice of assigning homework into some point in middle school. It not only causes unnecessary stress at home, but several studies have found it may not be doing anything academically for our kids.
Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.
By Brook Schaeffler, Emma Johnston and Cynthia Dillon
